Category: railway

Fish, Weeds, Hoverflies and Snails – 2 August 2016

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2 July bWent for a walk along the railway before dinner tonight and noticed that my plan to re-seed the banks of the burn with Himalayan Balsam last year had been successful.  The Himalayan Balsam was everywhere, as was the cowparsley and meadowsweet.  I so like the cowparsley.  It’s always a great place for insects, like the great big helicopter landing pad of the insect world.  Today I chased hoverflies of various stripes, and even some without stripes!  Thankfully I managed to catch one of them, even if it was from the rear.   However, it was the snails that were really the stars of the cowparsley.  You see, everyone wants in on the act with this versatile plant.  I’d plant some in the garden if Scamp would let me (fat chance there).

I don’t think tomorrow is spoken for yet, but Thursday and Friday are booked already.  How did I find the time to work, eh?

In the morning we drove to Linlithgow to get some fish at Oyster Oyster.  So it was sea bass for dinner tonight and probably herring in oatmeal for lunch tomorrow.  No fish fingers for dinner tomorrow though.  There’s plenty more fish in the sea and also in the freezer now too.

Stupid O’ Clock – 7 July 2016

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7 JulyWoke at 6am and couldn’t get back to sleep again, so it was off again to Auchinstarry to walk along the canal to Twechar and then back along the railway to Auchinstarry again and then drive home for breakfast.  That’s twice this week I’ve needlessly woken and walked in the middle of the night, well, almost in the middle of the night!  The walk along the canal, although interesting wasn’t as good as Tuesday’s one along the railway.  Yes, the birds were singing and the smell of the flowers was great, but it was a lot cloudier today and the light wasn’t as good as Tuesday’s.  That said, I did manage to get a photo of a deer racing up towards Barr Hill and a nice wee peaceful shot of the canal at Smithstone.  Smithstone was a wee hamlet near Auchinstarry in the early 1900s.  My dad told me about it, but he pronounced it ‘Smeeston‘.  Now Smithstone is a new housing estate in Cumbernauld.

After breakfast, I took the car down to get expert opinion on a leaky gasket on the offside drive shaft.  It goes in tomorrow to get it fixed.  Apparently it’s a known problem with Renaults, but more of a problem with Corsas.  Why don’t manufacturers act on the information they are getting from dealers and redesign these things before they become a bigger problem.  That’s what turns people away from British and European cars.  I think our next car will be a Nissan, a Honda or a Kia.

We went to Vecchia Bologna for lunch and although it wasn’t the best I’ve had there, it was most enjoyable.
So tomorrow will be another enforced early rise to get a new gaiter fitted to the Megane.  What we do with the rest of the day will depend on the weather.  After a fairly decent day, it’s raining now, and is forecast to rain all night, but tomorrow is supposed to be fair.  Saturday is set fair too.  Sunday?  Oh dear, I think I’ll stay in bed all day on Sunday!

Sleep Walking – 5 July 2016

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5 JulyWoke at 6am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I decided that as it was a lovely looking day, I shouldn’t waste it lying in bed, so I got up and dressed and drove down to Auchinstarry and walked out along the railway. Although the birds were singing in the trees, I couldn’t see a single one and there were no deer or other animals to be seen either. What there were, were hundreds of slugs and snails, probably encouraged out after the overnight rain. Although I quite like snails, slugs not as much, I didn’t want to spend my walk photographing them. Instead, I took some photos of the leaves and plants that were shaking off the rain. In the process, I got soaking wet, but that’s inevitable as soon as you leave the path. By the time I got back it was just after 9am and time for breakfast and the sun was still shining. That was so much better than lying in bed thinking I should be doing something more creative. Scamp was just getting up when I got in and breakfast was beckoning.

Skipping forward to lunchtime, I took myself off to the pool for a swim. No gym yet, I’m not ready for the full exercise regime just yet. On the way, I stopped in at Jim Dickson to get two new front tyres to be ready for the drive down south later in the month. £100 lighter, I went to the pool and had a relaxing sauna, swim and steam bath. Then I intended nipping in to B&Q to get a price for some gravel to edge the grass at the back garden, then going to see what was wrong with the air-con in the car. It was supposed to be a quick visit, but then I bumped into an old colleague Mae Campbell (no relation). We spent nearly an hour standing taking about folk we used to know and schools and stuff. That put paid to my visit to Bonnybridge to check the air-con. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Flickr seemed to be working better tonight and when I uploaded the photos, the first one that appeared was the mono shot of the grass flower. That made me think of a Lush shower gel I used to get called, oddly enough, ‘Grass’! They had stopped making it, but I was told in the shop to check the ‘Kitchen’ area on-line as Lush occasionally made up small batches of some discontinued lines. Lo and behold, this week there was a short production line of … Grass!  Ordered on the spot.

No great fakery today with the photos, not anything like yesterday’s forgery. Only cropping, a bit of tonal adjustment and then, for some, a reduction to black and white.

Don’t know if I’m doing an early shift tomorrow. It depends on my sleep pattern.

An improving day – 27 June 2016

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27 June

With Scamp’s cold improving, she went to Marji’s for June-D’s birthday lunch. That left me off the leash for an hour or so in the afternoon. I spent the morning looking for the serial key for a piece of software I wanted to swap over from the Toshiba to the new Linx. Never did find it and I wasted almost a whole morning trying. I wasn’t going to waste the afternoon.

Once I’d got my ‘easy’ sudoku solved (Easy? Do these people know the meaning of the word?) I got ready, and dressed to deter the ticks, I drove down toe Auchinstarry to see what was new along the railway. The answer was, quite a lot actually. The trees were in full leaf now and the smells from the flowers, especially the Meadowsweet were lovely. There was quite a strong westerly wind blowing and this helped make the lighting on the hill much more interesting. Unfortunately, the wind also blew in the rain clouds that joined me for the walk back to the car. I could have got soaked, but luckily I’d prepared well and brought my old almost-waterproof rain jacket with me. It saved the day again. Happy with the collection of photos I got today.

Salsa for me tonight, but as I was getting into the car, I felt that little roughness in my throat. Don’t tell me I’m getting Scamp’s Lurgi. Salsa was interesting with three new moves for me to remember. Hope my voice recorder has caught all the nuances of the moves.

Just about to start on the doggie bags Scamp brought back from the party.

A Wild Night – 14 June 2016

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14 June

 

Last night was a wild one and no mistake.  50mph winds and heavy seas.  We’re down in the bowels of the ship and therefore we feel it the most.  Last year we had the room below the kitchen and this year we have an even noisier room.  Worse still, the weather is to be equally bad tonight.  Oh what fun.

We were up and out early this morning and waiting in line for our ticket to freedom.  Ville Franche is a small town and the dock area is nowhere near big enough to take a ship the size of ours, so we are ferried off with a tender.  To achieve a semblance of order, you have to queue for a number.  Once you have this you have to wait in one of the restaurants or bars for a tender to become available.  Since there are around 2000 people on board and a tender takes less than 100, it can take a while.  The tenders themselves have to obey the local speed limit of 5 knots in the open water of the bay and 3 knots nearer shore.  This means the transfer takes even longer than it needs to take.  French rules apparently.  Also, because the tenders are constantly travelling there and back, they occasionally need refuelling.  It was going to be a long morning.  Actually, the girl who was giving out the tickets estimated an hour and she wasn’t far wrong.  One of the blessings of tender departure is that there are no bloody motorized wheelchairs or scooters.  These things are not only a menace, they are a downright danger in the close confines of a ship.  I understand the need for wheelchairs, but the amount of them, and the bloody bleeping scooters on this ship drives me to distraction.  I was standing in a bar tonight and some idiot decided to park their son’s scooter right behind me then proceeded to get shirty when I wouldn’t let him drive over me.  Apparently I should have had eyes in the back of my head!

Once we got our tender across to Ville Franche, we were on one of Scamp’s route marches to the station to get the train to Monte Carlo.  Train took 15 minutes to travel the 9 or so miles  to the millionaire’s playground.  Once we got off, we followed the crowd up the stairs, up the escalators, up in the lift and out at St Devote corner, famous to F1 fans.  We walked down the street, down steps, down in a lift and on to the harbour where we had a pizza each, shared a carafe of wine, and with free WiFi got two blogs posted.  Then we headed back, thinking that we’d need to climb up the near vertical streets to get back to the station.  Then we met an Indian family who had been on the train in.  They had found a much easier alternative route.  This took us from street level along a gentle incline on a travellator directly into the station.  Superb.  No climbing necessary.

Back in Ville Franche, we wandered round a market, I took some photos and we headed back to the ship.  After an hour or so of sunbathing it was time to get ready for dinner.  We sat with a cheery Yorkshire contingent who were on their first cruise, and they kept us amused throughout dinner.

Afterwards, we went to see the Piano Brothers second performance of the week and then had coffee in the buffet on 15 before turning in.  It’s getting a bit noisy now with crashy waves, so I’m off to get a few hours shut eye because I didn’t sleep much last night.

Tomorrow is Livorno, an old friend.  We both like Livorno with its canals and markets like The Barras.

This blog upload courtesy of Grand Bar in Livorno.

Land of the Custard Tarts. – 11 June 2016

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11 June3

My Uncle Bob, when he was returning to Larkhall would say “Back to the land of Sugartops.”  For those not born in Larky, a sugartop was a Saturday morning staple.  It was a bit like a flattened roll with sugar syrup on top.  The syrup acted like an adhesive to hold the lump sugar on top.  You spread butter on the flat bottom of the sugartop (unsalted butter was best) and ate it for breakfast on a Saturday.  As far as I know, they were only made in Larky and then only by one bakers, Eadie’s which closed a long time ago and took with it the sugartop.  If Larky was the land of the sugartops, Lisbon must be the land of the Portuguese Custard Tarts.  I know you can get them in Costa’s in the UK and I’ve seen recipes for them in books, but nothing comes close to the Lisbon Custard Tart.  With that in mind, our first stop once we alighted from the bus was the tart shop.  Scamp remembered how to get there and flew as straight as an arrow to the cafe.  Two custard tarts, one sprinkled with cinnamon (for me).  One sprinkled with icing sugar (for Scamp).  Two coffees, one white, one black.  Cost?  €4.50!  A bargain in anyone’s book.  You eat the tart and drink the coffee standing at a shelf in the cafe.  There are no seats.  It’s a eat an go thing.  Maybe Eadie’s in Larky should have adopted that strategy with sugartops.

After our second breakfast we wandered round the squares of Lisbon.  By the way, when we were at the breakfast table in the restaurant this morning, it caused great hilarity when I said we were off to find some tarts in Lisbon.  I can’t see why.  We walked up and up and up the hill to see the view from the top.  On the way I listened to a girl singing and playing a spanish guitar.  A dangerous thing to play in Portugal I’d have thought.  The don’t have much truck with their bigger neighbour.  A bit like Scotland and England, so I can understand their mindset.  Anyway, I listened to this girl playing and singing and I quite liked what I’d heard, so I bought her CD for €5. Then it was time to start on the upward trek again.  The view from the top when we reached it was great.  I remember it from the last time.  The easy way to get up to the viewpoint is to take the funicular tram.  We chose to use this tram to get us down to the level of the three central squares.  It only takes about five minutes to complete the downward journey and halfway down you meet the other tram coming up.  Very neat and orderly.  I don’t know if they use the downward tram as a counterbalance for the other one coming up to safe energy or not, but it’s a gentle way to spend five minutes on these veteran trams.

I like Lisbon, we both do, and not just because of the custard tarts either.  The city seems as if it’s stuck in a timewarp.  Some of it looks quite Victorian, some of it harks back to the ‘50s, but not a lot of central Lisbon is modern.  The train station which also houses Starbucks has a lovely Art Nouveau frontage.  Possibly the poshest Starbucks I’ve ever seen.  Just along from Posh Starbucks is a tiny wee shop that is always seriously locked up with steel shutters on the door and behind the windows.  In the window is a wide selection of wicked looking knives.  Best of all though is the advert on the side for pistols, carbines, rifles and ammunition.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they could furnish you with an AK47.  They used to also sell fake, but very convincing police ID in a variety of nationalities.  They no longer have them in the window, but that doesn’t mean they don’t sell them inside.

Back at the ship we found a small pool at the stern and settled into sunbeds there, only to find that we had left the oversize towel pegs at home.  Scamp thought I’d packed them and I thought she had.  Oh dear.  Maybe we’ll find a Lakeland at Gibraltar tomorrow and get a new set.  They’re so useful for attaching your pool towel to your sunbed.

We stayed there until we sailed away from Lisbon for this year.  Hopefully we’ll be back.  As we sailed under the combined road and train bridge on our way out of Lisbon, I thought back to 6am this morning standing on the deck in my shirt sleeves freezing in the chill wind photographing us going under it on the way in.  It’s still impressive and it gives you a sense of scale of the ship seeing the minimal clearance between the top of the mast and the underside of the rail bridge part.

Show tonight was “Blame it on the boogie”.  Least said the better.  Not so much Boogie as Boggin!

Much later arrival in Gibraltar tomorrow, 11.30am.

Back To School – 1 June 2016

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1 june bBack, but just visiting. A bit like the jail in the Monopoly board, it’s ok to visit, but I don’t want to go there. It was good to speak to former colleagues with a lot of friends among them, but it was even better to leave. I was only going to sign up for a retiral dinner for a two teachers who are making the best move they’ll ever make. Well, it is for Scamp and I anyway.

Other than that, I got some photos while I was out on a walk, but nothing spectacular.

The strangest shot I got was the one of the moth. I spotted it last night as I was going to bed, but it flew off before I could get a photo. I did get one clear photo this morning but I still can’t identify it. The unusual thing about it is the way the tail hooks over almost like a sting. It could be like the scorpion wasp that looks like a scorpion, but has no sting.

Today was another scorcher with temperature of 13.4c when I got up to make the breakfast this morning. The temperature increased to over 19c later in the day.

Looking forward to tasting our Strawberry Vodka tomorrow.

A walk on the canal side – 31 May 2016

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31 may bScamp suggested a walk along the canal this morning.  As it was so bright and sunny, it seemed a shame not to, so we drove down to Auchinstarry and headed off along the railway to Twechar.  Maybe it’s because we were talking all the way and maybe it’s because we were marching along quite sharply at Scamp’s usual pace, but I didn’t take a single photo all the way there.  Even on the way back I only grabbed two desultory shots of some backlit grasses, neither of which made the final cut.  The word ‘desultory’ always makes me think of A Simple Desultory Philippic.  It was a track on Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album, and I never really understood it.  Liked it, but never understood it.  But to quote Dylan, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”  It was just after the grass photos that Scamp said that this was what retirement was for.  It’s strange, but last Tuesday, a week ago, when I was out walking around St Mo’s about 5.30am I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Didn’t do much else when we got back other than cut front and back grass while Scamp went to a ‘Witches’ meeting.  Don’t ask, it’s just an opportunity to gossip!  No spells were cast.  Later, when the light was better, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, being careful not to go in to the wild wood for fear of little beasties namely ticks which I seem to be very prone to.  Got some decent shots of the baby coots and Mr Grey hiding in the reeds, pretending he wasn’t there.  Then, in one of the smaller ponds, I spotted a dragonfly.  It’s still May, ok the end of May, but still May and there are dragons out!  Unheard of.  I’d say that this might be summer starting, but I know from the weather forecasts that next week rain sweeps in.  Still, we’ll take all the sun we’re offered and say thank you very much.  This is what retirement is all about.

Heading South – 17 May 2016

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combo bAfter an early (well, early for us now) rise and a taxi ride, we were on the train to Embra and thence on the train to London.

The carriage was a bit old and clunky but still very comfortable.  For once, we seemed to pass from light to dull as we travelled south.  It never actually rained, but at times it seemed like it wanted to.  There were lots of photographers out taking photos of us on our journey, or so it seemed until we realised that they were actually waiting to get a shot of the Flying Scotsman which allegedly we had passed just outside Newcastle.  What a disappointment.  I hope they got their shots and, if they got one or two of me peering out of the train window, that they got my ‘good side’.

Further down the line we had to brake to a stop because of a ‘trespass incident’.  I’m guessing that some photogs were getting a bit too enthusiastic in their attempts to get a nice good close-up of the steam engine.  As a result, we were 10 minutes late getting to London, and missed our connection at Vauxhall by 5 minutes.  I used the time to grab the couple of shots you see here.  Vauxhall seems to constantly re-invent itself.  Every time we stand on the platform of Vauxhall station, more new buildings are rising around us.

When we got to Chessington, N D’Ag had just arrived to give us a lift in the car.  Now if some braindead photog hadn’t trespassed at Thirsk, we wouldn’t have  been 10 minutes late into London and we wouldn’t have missed our connection at Vauxhall and we would have had a fairly long walk to the house.  Some things just work out.

Maybe the food on the train wasn’t as good as we thought.  Scamp was feeling sick tonight.  Hopefully she’ll be right as rain tomorrow, but we don’t want the actual rain, thank you very much.